Loss of Clydesdale sale another big fiscal hit for Springfield

Tuesday

Springfield tourism officials said Monday the city will take another $250,000 hit because of an event forced to relocate as a result of electrical problems at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

Springfield tourism officials said Monday the city will take another $250,000 hit because of an event forced to relocate as a result of electrical problems at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The three-day National Clydesdale sale, which organizers say draws an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people to Springfield, is relocating to Madison, Wis., April 24-26, and with it the revenue it produced.

“It’s right around $250,000,” said Gina Gemberling, director of sales for the Springfield Convention and Tourism Bureau.

That comes on the heels of the loss of two other big fairgrounds events -- the Illinois Horse Fair and the Illinois Beef Expo -- each of which also generates about a quarter of a million dollars for the city, according to bureau estimates.

The Horse Fair was forced to cancel because it could not find a large enough site on short notice. The Beef Expo relocated to Bloomington, although it had to cancel some of its events because the Bloomington site is smaller than the fairgrounds.

City officials are able to estimate the revenue losses because the events took up large numbers of hotel rooms, and the city can use those numbers to determine economic impact. If an event does not reserve hotel rooms, it’s much more difficult to estimate economic impact.

It’s not just revenue coming into Springfield businesses that’s affected. Gemberling said the city asked state tourism officials to estimate lost state and local tax revenue from the displaced events. For each $250,000 lost, it costs $11,750 in state tax revenue and $6,000 in tax revenue that would go to local government, Gemberling said.

For the Horse Fair that was canceled and the Clydesdale sale that is moving out of state, that means a loss of $23,500 in state tax revenue. Local government would lose $18,000 because all three events are not helping the Springfield economy.

The estimate was prepared by Jan Kemmerling of the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Kemmerling was not in the office Monday. DCEO spokeswoman Ashley Cross said the estimate was made using a formula devised by the Travel Industry Association of America. A TIA spokeswoman did not return a call Monday.

The fairgrounds itself is losing about $150,000 that event organizers would have paid in rent. Dozens of events have been forced to cancel or relocate since electrical problems forced the virtual shutdown of the fairgrounds due to safety concerns in early February.

State and local officials are worried about the possibility some events won’t return to the grounds next year. Although Illinois Horse Fair organizers said they want to return, the Illinois Beef Expo is weighing the option of making Bloomington its new home.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Jeff Squibb said staffers have been assigned specifically to contact organizers of events displaced by the electrical problems and convince them to return.

“The people we’ve talked to have been receptive,” Squibb said. “Nobody has indicated to us they definitely will not be back next year. We’re optimistic that most, if not all, of the events displaced this year will be back in future years.”

State officials hope to have the electrical problems repaired by May 16, in time for Memorial Day motorcycle races to take place as scheduled. B&B Electrical of Springfield won a $1.8 million contract to replace miles of high-voltage cable running beneath the grounds. The company is expected to work a double shift seven days a week until the work is finished.

B&B formally signed the contract March 13, but the company’s crews were already on the grounds performing work as a subcontractor to HDR, an engineering firm hired to pinpoint the electrical problem.

“They are pulling and replacing the wire,” said Dave Blanchette, spokesman for the Capital Development Board, which is overseeing the project. “They seamlessly transitioned to the new contract. We are still on target for May 16.”

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

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